Former President Donald Trump, his two adult sons, and their family business will be facing (civil) trial next month as scheduled after a New York judge this week denied a last-minute request from the Trumps’ corner for a delay.
The underlying dispute now moving towards trial is the civil lawsuit filed by New York state Attorney General Letitia James that alleges a years-long pattern of deception at the Trump business. She is seeking hundreds of millions of dollars in penalties. Notably, Ivanka Trump — who separately is keeping her distance from the former president’s latest bid for office — is no longer among the defendants in this case after a New York court found allegations made against her connected to her time at the Trump family business were effectively barred by relevant statutes of limitations. However, Donald, Donald Jr., and Eric remain set for scrutiny at trial.
Ahead of the request for a delay denied this week by New York Judge Arthur Engoron, James actually filed a request for a summary judgment against the Trumps, which would mean a determination before trial that key claims the state’s top prosecutor has brought are true. A hearing to consider that possibility will take place September 22.
That outcome, if obtained, would leave for the eventual trial decisions on other claims, as the request from James for a summary judgment didn’t cover everything she alleged, focusing on allegedly vastly misstated claims of personal net worth used for doing business. That judgment, if issued, would join the summary judgment that Trump now faces in writer E. Jean Carroll’s other court case against him, meaning the challenge that had yet to proceed to trial. A federal judge in New York this week decided to apply jury findings from her case that did proceed to trial to the other challenge, meaning the overall second trial (set for next year) will be just to determine the level of additional financial penalty for the former president.
Trump, who Carroll accused of both defamation and sexual misconduct, is already on the rhetorical hook for millions of dollars. Meanwhile, Engoron’s rejection of the proposed delay for the trial on James’s claims was succinct. “Defendants’ arguments are completely without merit,” Engoron wrote by hand on a copy of a proposed motion for the judge.
